Week 7

MBE/Multiple-choice Questions

For those of you who recently completed the Barbri midterm (or will soon complete the Themis midterm): Focused practice, followed by more mixed practice, is the way to bring that MBE score up. The more practice questions you do between now and exam day, the better. It's not too late to buy Adaptibar and get your money's worth! If you are on Themis, the QBank is not the same as Adaptibar--but it's the next best thing. If you don't have Adaptibar, use QBank. If you're on Barbri and don't have Adaptibar, Barbri's "MCQ Bank" is better than nothing.

If you are struggling with timing on the MBE (either too fast or too slow), then do some practice MCQ sets (of, say, 10 questions each) where you force yourself to spend 1 minute 48 seconds on each question. That will help you develop your exam-day rhythm and tempo. The problem with answering questions too slowly is obvious: you'll run out of time. But what about answering too quickly? Examinees who (intentionally or unintentionally) rush through MCQs often miss subtle clues that change the answer--e.g., an important fact or a word like "not" in the call ("Which of the following is not a valid defense?"). Pro tip: Adaptibar has a timing report under Performance>Timing. You want the "sweet spot" to the left of but close to the red "108 seconds" line:

MEE/Essays: Time to ramp up practice

With the midterm in the rearview mirror, it's time to ramp up essay practice. This week, you should be doing at least 3 essays per day. If you know you can write a good answer in the appropriate format in 30 minutes (assuming you know the law), then write out 1 essay for every 5 you outline. When you outline essays, write an explicit, verbose rule statement, then bullet point the application and the conclusion. That way, you can get through more essays in a given amount of time while focusing on the rules you don't know well (or at all). Keep making flashcards for the rules you don't know. And remember to take a little time each day to run through your flashcards!

As with MCQs, the goal between now and exam day is to review as many essay questions as possible. Why? Two reasons: First, there are only so many ways the examiners can test the various topics. The more questions you answer, the more likely you are to see something familiar on exam day. Second, every time you attempt an essay and get the answer wrong or realize you don't know the rule, it's an opportunity fill a gap in that outline in your head.

MPTs: How much practice is enough?

Unlike MCQs and essays, more MPT practice is not necessarily better. That's because the MPT is all skill and no knowledge. Answering more MPTs does not allow you to fill the gaps in your knowledge of the law. Once you've mastered the skill of answering an MPT in 90 minutes, all you need to do is keep that skill fresh with occasional practice.

If you were in the "live" section of the Preparing for the Bar Exam class, you've done plenty of MPTs. Two more between now and exam day is probably enough. If you were not in PFTB Live or feel shaky on the MPT, then consider three or four. Be sure to practice the four main MPT genres: memo, brief, objective letter, and persuasive letter. You will likely have two of those four tasks on exam day. If the task is something more esoteric, the examiners will tell you what you need to know to complete the task.

Where are you taking the bar exam?

By now, the BLE should have told you your exam location. Could you please let us know what location you received? We intend to serve lunch on both exam days to those taking the exam in Arlington, so if you want a boxed lunch (options to follow later), fill out the survey now. (I wish we could offer lunches at every testing site, but that's feasible only in Arlington.)

Question of the week (revisited): Recent SCOTUS opinions

Back in Week 2, someone asked:
Q: I am wondering how the bar exam will test the Constitutionality of privacy-related rights (specifically, rights to abortion and contraception) given the leaked draft opinion and the likelihood that this opinion will change the law right before the exam. Do you know if they plan to test it as if the opinion did not exist or if they plan to not test that subject due to the late notice of the changes?

A: On June 24, the NCBE made this announcement: "Examinees taking the NCBE-developed July 2022 MBE, MPT, and MEE will not be required to be familiar with this term's US Supreme Court decisions." I interpret that to mean that any law or precedent affected by this term's decisions will not be tested on the July exam.

Tip of the Week

Here's a tip from one of your colleagues:

Yesterday I had the thought to turn to Brainscape’s MBE flashcards to do some focused study on intentional torts. The spaced repetition was super helpful and it helped to fill in the gaps of what I was missing. I highly recommend this approach to others.

I know it isn’t linked to anything like an outline, but the subtopics line up with the topics in the SMBE report. It might be a helpful resource for others who can identify narrow areas where they struggle.

I think that's a great idea, so I'm passing it along. If you don't have Brainscape, it's $10/month, and you'll only need it for 1 month. You could do the same thing with Critical Pass or any other set of flashcards. But Brainscape does have spaced repetition built in. Hat tip: TJ Beal.

That's all for this week. As ever, if you have questions or need talked back from the ledge, email or call me or Prof. Deutsch. Our contact info is on this blog's home page.